1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, a semiconductor device, an active matrix device, an electro-optical device, and an electronic apparatus.
2. Related Art
For example, an active matrix driving LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) panel is provided with an active matrix device which includes a plurality of pixel electrodes and switching elements provided to correspond to the pixel electrodes (for example, see JP-A-2004-6782).
In general, the active matrix device uses thin-film transistors (TFTs) as switching elements.
As the TFTs, a top gate structure is known in which source and drain electrodes and a semiconductor layer are formed on a substrate, and a gate insulator layer and a gate electrode are laminated on the source and drain electrodes and the semiconductor layer in that order. In general, a pixel electrode is provided on the gate insulator layer of the TFT. That is, the gate electrode and the pixel electrode arranged to be separated from each other are formed directly on the gate insulator layer.
However, in such an active matrix device, it is necessary to pattern a conductor layer uniformly formed on a gate insulating film by etching to form a gate electrode and a pixel electrode.
For this reason, in the active matrix device of the related art, it is necessary to carry out etching for patterning or etching so as to remove a resist layer used as a mask at the time of etching, and the number of etching processes increases. The increase in the number of etching processes causes complexity of the manufacturing process and deterioration in productivity.